Institute for Medieval Studies
IMC 2018 Session
Session | 127 |
Title | Memory in Tolkien's Medievalism, I |
Date/Time | Monday 2 July 2018: 11.15-12.45 |
Sponsor | Cardiff Metropolitan University |
Organiser | Dimitra Fimi, Centre for Fantasy & the Fantastic, School of Critical Studies, University of Glasgow |
Moderator/Chair | Brad Eden, Independent Scholar, Valparaiso, Indiana |
Paper 127-a | World-Building and Memory in the Name-List to the 'Fall of Gondolin' (Language: English) Andrew Higgins, Centre for Fantasy & the Fantastic, School of Critical Studies, University of Glasgow Index Terms: Language and Literature - Comparative; Medievalism and Antiquarianism |
Paper 127-b | The Smith, the Weaver, and the Librarian: Sub-Creating Memory in Tolkien's Work (Language: English) Gaëlle Abaléa, Independent Scholar, Orléans Index Terms: Language and Literature - Other; Medievalism and Antiquarianism |
Paper 127-c | Tolkien's Typological Imagination (Language: English) Anna Smol, English Department, Mount Saint Vincent University, Nova Scotia Index Terms: Language and Literature - Other; Medievalism and Antiquarianism |
Abstract | J.R.R. Tolkien's 'secondary world' unfolds in an immense depth of time.This sense of depth is inherent in The Lord of the Rings and is apparent in scenes such as the 'Council of Elrond', during which Elrond himself reminisces about events that took place thousands of years previously. What is more, it is not a literary device: Tolkien spent most of his lifetime inventing an extended mythology that detailed the history of his imaginary world over millennia, including a cosmogonic myth and a great number of interrelated legends and tales. This session will explore time in Tolkien's legendarium with an emphasis on memory. Papers can focus on topics such as the value, nature, means, or trauma of remembering and/or forgetting the past in Middle-earth, the role of memory in shaping the future, memorials and monuments, the fictitious transmission of the legendarium (via texts or orally), and remembering and forgetting as part of Tolkien's 'secondary world infrastructures' (Wolf, 2012) such as timelines, genealogies, languages, cultures, etc. |